The grant also will fund post-doctoral fellowships, visiting professors, doctoral
student fellowships, guest lecturers, summer research stipends and a major conference.

“This will be the largest grant the Free Market Institute has received since the initial
pledge of $4 million that founded the institute,” said Benjamin Powell, director of the institute. “It’s going to significantly increase our activity. This
grant will bring more than 50 scholars, post-doctoral students, visiting professors
and guest lecturers to Texas Tech during the course of the next three years. It will
help us make a significant contribution to better understanding the social change
dynamics that lead to a freer and more prosperous society.”

Daniel Austin Green, director of Freedom and Free Enterprise at the Templeton Foundation, said the research
conducted by Texas Tech will provide greater insight about the more fundamental question
of which institutions bring about economic freedoms.

“We won’t just be learning more about how to make societies prosperous, but about
the deeper culture and values that will sustain freedom and prosperity long into the
future,” he said. “The main research project funded by the grant will study what causes
countries or U.S. states to adopt institutions that support an environment of economic
freedom that causes prosperity.”

How economic freedom is improved is much less understood than the benefits that freedom
provides, Powell said, and the research project will address this major gap in that
understanding.

“If private property and economic freedom are essential for achieving and maintaining
a high standard of living, then it is crucial to understand specifically how improvements
in these areas have been achieved and if there are lessons that are replicable in
less free areas of the world or less free U.S. states today,” he said.

Texas Tech President M. Duane Nellis said that understanding economic questions such as the one covered in the grant make
Texas Tech’s FMI stand out as a research institute and can have far-reaching applications
that impact millions of people.

It will be interesting to see what Dr. Powell and others uncover as they work toward
a better understanding of how economic freedom and prosperity interact,” Nellis said.
“I appreciate Dr. Powell’s continued efforts to secure external sources for funding.”

The Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating
to the big questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. It supports research on
subjects ranging from complexity, evolution and infinity to creativity, forgiveness,
love and free will. The organization encourages civil, informed dialogue among scientists,
philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for
the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights.

“In its first year since opening, the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech is already
making a tremendous impact on our students, faculty and campus,” said Texas Tech Chancellor
Kent Hance. “This $1.7 million grant is just another example of the institute’s excellence,
and we are proud of Dr. Powell and his team’s efforts to highlight the importance
of free market thinking and economic freedom.”

Free Market Institute

The mission of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech is to advance the teaching of and research directly related to the
virtues of free markets. The Institute promotes scholarship that crosses disciplinary
boundaries, providing a forum that encourages and values discussion and rigorous debate
regarding all aspects of free markets.